Firings, reliefs, and military misdeeds: The hits just keep on coming, for some reason
This month's hall of shame.
Wow. This is the third such roundup in just over a month:
Wow. This is the third such roundup in just over a month:
— Craig Whitlock uncovered a hidden case in which an Air Force colonel harassed the hell out of a subordinate female civilian, including sending her recordings of him masturbating. (Official Best Defense finding: The Air Force didn’t charge the colonel and instead allowed him to quietly retire at a lower grade. In other words, when the generals don’t do their jobs, and the IG seemingly can’t — well, that’s when the media can be a real help.)
— An Army lieutenant colonel who was deputy director of cyber operations at Fort Gordon, Georgia., got eight years in the slammer for child porn. (Official Best Defense question: Shouldn’t a cyber operator be good enough at his job to prevent investigators from finding such evidence on his own computer?)
— Over in the Royal Navy, a kind of twofer relief occurred: Both the commander of a submarine and his XO got the big boot for having inappropriately close relationships with female subordinates. What happens when the boat goes down was supposed to stay on the boat, except five other officers on the boat complained.
— Always competitive, the Marine Corps relieved three of the top leaders of its 25th Regiment, a reserve unit.
— In the U.S. Navy, Capt. Adam Aycock, whilst commanding the USS Shiloh, sentenced seven sailors to time in the brig on diets of bread and water. No evidence of floggings to improve morale, though.
Photo credit: (Wikimedia Commons)
Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1
More from Foreign Policy

America Is a Heartbeat Away From a War It Could Lose
Global war is neither a theoretical contingency nor the fever dream of hawks and militarists.

The West’s Incoherent Critique of Israel’s Gaza Strategy
The reality of fighting Hamas in Gaza makes this war terrible one way or another.

Biden Owns the Israel-Palestine Conflict Now
In tying Washington to Israel’s war in Gaza, the U.S. president now shares responsibility for the broader conflict’s fate.

Taiwan’s Room to Maneuver Shrinks as Biden and Xi Meet
As the latest crisis in the straits wraps up, Taipei is on the back foot.